He may still be talking a good fight but unless he's perfected the art of selective deafness Boris Johnson knows very well that George Osborne's axe is going to fall on London's transport grants. The question is how deep the cut will be and how the suffering will be spread around.

Transport for London is hopeful of a long-term commitment to funding for infrastructure investment covering the ongoing Underground lines upgrades, road maintenance and improvements ("no more Hammersmith flyovers," remarks a source) and measures to relieve the crush at the some of the more congested stations. It knows it might not get as much as it would like, but a five year arrangement of the Network Rail type would be nice.

The last I heard TfL was fairly optimistic on that point but gloomier about the cash that will be available for all the other stuff it does. A big cut "would affect everything," I'm told, from the bus service to the cycling plans. What might have to give? "Nothing is guaranteed, nothing is sacred," it is stressed.

Of course, government grant isn't TfL's only source of funds. Some 60% has been coming from elsewhere such as selling advertising space, income from the rent and sale of property, congestion charging, sponsorship and, yes, fares. The smaller the grant, though, the greater the dependence on those other avenues if ends are to meet. That £55m a year the mayor flushed away by halving the congestion charge zone would come in rather handy now.

The present, perennial inflation-plus fares hikes are politically sensitive enough as it is, and whatever scope exists for maximising takings elsewhere, it looks very much as though planned programmes of one or another type will have to be shrunk, dumped or delayed after the outcome of the comprehensive spending review is known on 26 June. There aren't too many easy options lying around. Readers' thoughts on those tricky choices would, needless to say, be of great interest.

About this article

London transport: who should pay for Osborne's fast-approaching grant cut?London transport: who should pay for Osborne's cut?

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 09.35 EDT on Wednesday 12 June 2013.
It was last modified at 09.52 EDT on Wednesday 12 June 2013.
It was first published at 06.31 EDT on Friday 26 September 2008.